How Things Work - Doha Academy of Tertiary Studies

BOX 5.1. (cont.)
Gathering Data 93
love . . . grounded support . . . balance . . . personality . . . power . . .
knowledge.” Then, “AM I RIGHT?” “RIGHT!” “ARE YOU READY
TO MOVE ON?” “YES!”
He takes them through five or six moves. Left fist forward. Right
foot back. Left knee bent. One move at a time, repeated twenty times,
describing it at a shout, then counting off the repetitions. His movements
are elegant, disciplined, visually arresting. The boys keep an eye
on him, feel their bodies making some such move, then carry it out
extravagantly, outside the rim of demonstrated action. Few of them lose
sight of interesting challenges to right or left.
“Okay, this is the alphabet. Each of these moves is a letter. What do
you get if you put them all together? You get words. These are the moves
that make up all the martial arts: Korean, Japanese, Chinese. Basically,
they are all the same.” He puts Sylvester into a position, fist forward,
elbows out, leg back. “Balance . . . ready . . . hard to move him . . . heavy
like a mountain.” Again and again, the group follows Hussein, moving
forward and back, intent, wanting it as an individual, not yet showing
much group adherence.
“Mr. Hussein, can we have a drink?” Although several of the boys
answer, “No,” Makir Hussein cannot refuse again. First he urges: “Forget
about time. Make your own conditions. Forget about water breaks.”
But he allows their disbanding and the last ten minutes of the class is
lost.
letting each observer write up the story of his or her visit independently
would help the reader see the uniqueness and similarities of each camp.
Still, observation forms might have helped us focus on the NYSP issues,
issues such as:
1. Which ethic is picked up by the youth, the “striving” or the
“winning” ethic?
2. Is the heavy involvement of police as coaches an asset or an
obstacle?
3. Does the national office (National Collegiate Athletic Association;
NCAA) stress compliance or independence in the operation
of the camps?
Designing even a small data- gathering instrument is a big job, often
not done well. Will its scores represent what they are supposed to rep